“MMMPHMMM!!!”

As Shira was still hauled up, firmly in the clutches of these … mutations of nature, seven more of them gradually emerged from the shadows. They watched, bouncing lightly on their legs, their frills pulsing with excitement, as what looked like a rather meaty meal was brought to one of their massive webs.

Before she was set down, the spider holding her applied some more webbing around her middle. It went in haphazard loops from her neck, down her chest, and across her hips. Soon, her striking silver fur was only visible in patches underneath a heavy, skin-tight, translucent cocoon.

Only then did the spiders finally drop her on their intricately woven web, her feet facing the wall and her body half above a peeking ledge. One of the spiders pressed its narrow legs against her side, ensuring her webbed-up body properly latched on and stuck there from top to bottom. Shira grunted angrily under her gag at the sharp, persistent pushing at her skin, wriggling a bit to try and escape the invasive touch.

It took far too long for her captors to be satisfied. But when they were, they finally stepped off the web, off to other ventures as Shira was left alone.

Leaving her mad struggles to escape totally uninterrupted.

Her sleek, web-coated form was illuminated by the violet light that rippled against her shifting bonds and fur. She immediately tried to wrench herself off the bigger web itself, but it was firmly locked onto the webbing around her, supergluing her in place and causing the web – and by extension, her – to bob uncomfortably up and down.

Shira tried to pry her forelegs out from their bundled position, her wrists wriggling and jutting about. But she was only rewarded with the sound of wet stretching and flaring cramps from just how trapped her upper body was! It caused her to nearly lose control of her breathing, her panicked gasps restricted to her nose, her compressed face and mouth getting stiflingly warm …

“Mmmfh … Mmmmm … Mmggghhhff!!”

Her failed attempts to stretch her jaws even a little wracked her mouth with dull pains. Her muffled moans and growls sounded as suffocated and garbled as she felt. She squeezed her eyes shut, and even that was enough to dig the webbing a little deeper into her muzzle.

When the imprisoned saber shot them back open, she saw three spiders crawling back into view.

“Mmgh …”

But what then got her attention was what they carried in their misshapen mouths.

Two of them held the very clear outlines of saber-toothed tigers like her, also tightly webbed up and muzzled. Their forelegs were completely invisible save for their paws, strapped down to their sides, and their back legs were folded and welded together in vile bundles of white.

“Mmmph!”

“Hmmhmrmh!!”

Shira couldn’t even recognize their faces, as nothing but their eyes was free of the bindings. But those eyes spoke volumes to their terror. As did their distant, pitiful screaming as they were settled on webs of their own, which then proceeded to rock and stretch as their miserable squirming continued.

All she could see was that neither of them had heterochromatic eyes. Which meant Aisha hadn’t been caught.

… Yet.

The third spider also carried fully ensnared prey. And it was only because of the barely visible hooves and large antlers sticking out from the bundle that Shira recognized this victim as the elk. The very same one that had led them in here.

Shira obviously didn’t even care about catching it anymore.

What she had to assume were her bound packmates kept mewling and moaning, the muffled sounds barely even reaching her ears. All she could tell was that one of the voices was distinctly masculine, and the other clearly female. But even without that, Shira could still see they were in considerable agony. They looked so tightly compressed and smothered in that webbing.

The sight served to make her realize how she must look right now, and just how deeply into her own fur the webbing had been embedded. Had she had any real body fat, her skin would be smushed and jutting out between the silk, as it was already pinching her with even a slightly deep breath … which itself was becoming harder to take by the minute!

“Mmmmhhh …”

She moaned and rocked in her cocoon. Her hind legs shook and thrusted rapidly, trying to push her away from the spiders, only to feel resurging squeezes shoot through her slender, wiry limbs. “Mmmmfhmmph … Mmmph!”

Despite how feeble the whines and cries made her sound, the hardened tiger couldn’t help it.

Unfortunately, they got forceful enough to grab the attention of a few of her arachnid-like abductors. They released a few condensed, shrill grunts as they skittered down to her, their mouths gnashing loudly in anticipation of simply seeing their hearty meal-to-be.

Shira’s breaths quickened through her nose. She wobbled with the web as the spiders landed upon it, and she wriggled back and forth on her own as they sauntered towards her. One of them poked at her back, causing her to gasp with a stifled, “Hmmf!”

The other two spiders apparently felt encouraged to join in. They slid their creeping, gangly, yet hulking appendages across her body, as if deliberately taunting her. Their long, semi-sharp extensions protruded out, stroking her along her stripes, their heinous chitin textures palpable even through her silk bindings.

“Rrph!”

Didn’t your mom tell you to not play with your food?!

Lower, chittering hums warbled in the creatures’ throats, which grew in intensity as they became more enraptured with their little plaything. They jostled the angry saber back and forth, prodding and picking, none too gently, giving her an increasing amount of long-term sore spots.

“Grrrrrhhhh …”

She shuddered and growled under the webbing, which itself kept fondling her to make the degradation even worse.

And they still wouldn’t go away!

I swear, I’m gonna …

One of them rubbed a few tips back and forth across her head, trailing down to her nose … nearly covering it up, cutting off her air-

THAT’S IT!!

Shira sharply twisted her middle to face them directly! Though her paws were stuck against her chest in a “praying” pose, they rose and fell with it as she flashed her outraged green eyes at them, fiercely lashing her bound legs, snarling loudly through her webbed-up mouth!

“RRRMMMMMNNNNHHHH!!!!!”

But the spiders all screeched as loudly as possible in response, right at her face! Their sickly frills were all fully extended, and as they inched closer, Shira was forced back onto her side. She closed her eyes again, unable to cover her ears to block out the blood-curdling noise!

“Mmmm …!”

As the spiders got so worked up that they started thumping their legs against the web, Shira forced herself to accept that egging these freaks on any more was only going to make them kill her even sooner. She couldn’t fight back, and they knew it.

So she chose to remain still.

She took the abuse for a bit longer, despite every instinct in her defiant soul urging her to struggle. She let them vibrate the web and induce light motion sickness upon her. She let them pick at her a bit more. She even let one of them nibble at her hind toes, merely twitching them as they were subjected to the jagged pressure and foul moisture.

Cool it, she told herself. Let ‘em get it all out …

And after far too long, they did. One by one, the spiders all decided they’d had enough for now, climbing back up to presumably check on their other saber-toothed captives, both of whom she could still hear crying pathetically.

She still didn’t resume her efforts to break free quite yet. Her mind was too busy racing through everything that had brought her here, and just what a dire, humiliating, and – she forced herself to admit it – scary situation this was for her especially.

Shira already loathed the idea of needing anyone’s help, even in trivial situations. She told herself she’d never be some damsel in distress, waiting for someone to come and save her … and yet, right now, she was exactly that. Helpless as potential prey to a horde of monsters.

She would never want any of her packmates to see her like this.

But at the same time … she wanted them to come and get her out of this. But she also hoped they would be okay, and she didn’t want even more of them captured too if they tried to save her and the two others above her. But that was if they even bothered trying … if they felt they were better off without her … which she never thought would upset her on its own, yet it was now …

… Aisha’s words echoed in her mind.

‘I dunno, it seems like you care at least a bit …’

“Grrmrmrph!!”

Shira shoved her shoulders against their encasement, her toned biceps bursting under the binds as the relentless storm of emotions brewed and plagued her head! She hated it! And she knew she had to make it stop somehow!

She didn’t know how she felt about so much …

… But she did know that she wouldn’t find out by dying in a cocoon of silk.

She looked back up at the gazelle and other tigers. It looked like they were already starting to die from sheer suffocation.

That would not be her.

---

Many sets of paws lay firmly planted in the thick, rough gravel outside the massive, mountainous cave. Many tiger pelts were lightly damp from the tiny, passing snow flurries that had come and gone, and their feet were just as wet from the remnants of the ocean tide that clearly reached this point some time in its daily cycle. That same ocean could be seen half a mile away from this side of the cave, where it came all the way up to the back wall, with no land forming at the base.

There turned out to be two exits on the cave’s left side, the only ones the pack had managed to find when scouting the perimeter. Terra, Benji, and half of the pack remained still in front of the one further inland. While the assigned party members searched the interior for their sacred elk, everyone else waited outside, hoping to either greet their victorious packmates or trap the prey should it find its way back out by itself.

They stared into the opening with apprehension, trying to brace themselves for good or disappointing news alike. Some of the sabers from the hunt, including Tomar, reemerged over the course of an hour, empty-pawed but in okay shape. But others were still not back, giving everyone an iota of hope that this whole thing wasn’t quite yet a lost cause.

That is, until a panting voice emerged from the darkness, as well as the sound of running feet.

Terra got in front of Benji protectively, ready for whatever emerged to either greet or fight them.

But her guard lowered when her mate came rushing out into the light.

“Aisha!” she cried.

“Mom!”

Benji darted over to rub his face against her legs as she came to a sloppy stop, while his mother held a paw to her chest as she nuzzled her head. As the family reunited, though, the rest of the pack looked on with worry at how scared and even desperate Aisha seemed to get out of there. Her huffs were loud enough to reach the whole pack’s ears. She had clearly been running from something … and it was certainly no elk.

Terra gently licked some of the dirt off her love’s face as she asked, “Are you okay?! What happened?!”

Aisha buried her head in Terra’s bulkier neck. Both to give herself sorely needed rest and to let herself calm down from the terrible ordeal.

“We … there’s … something in there …” she panted into Terra’s white chest fur. “Something … big …… I-I think a lot of them …!”

A flurry of questions inevitably followed her vague, exhausted recounting.

“What do you mean, ‘something big’” a male in the crowd asked.

“Wh-Where are the others?” Tomar asked nervously.

“Where’s Shira?”

That question came from none other than her son.

At that moment, Aisha wanted nothing more than to hide completely in the embrace of her mate. Never to deliver any of the terrible news to any of her allies and friends, least of all her child. She knew how much he liked and even admired Shira, and she felt her heart sink when she brought herself to look at his big, wondering yellow eyes asking for someone who was probably … probably …

Keep it together, she thought, trying to control her trembling.

“Sweetie …” she forced herself to say, “… I think … they got her …”

Benji gasped. His mouth remained agape as he whimpered out a pathetic, “Wh-… What …?”

“Aisha, what happened in there?” Terra asked, at a loss at such vague yet disturbing news.

“I don’t know! We-we got separated by some rockslide, an-and I heard some sort of shrieking on the other side!” Aisha stammered. “I-I don’t know what happened after that! I just ran out here to get help!”

“… Help??” Tomar asked.

Terra looked at her mate.

Aisha, as she finally managed to fully catch her breath, looked imploringly back up at her. And Terra instantly knew where her head was at.

Her smaller mate was scared. And even though she didn’t know for sure what had happened, she knew going back in there would be extremely dangerous. But Terra knew that Aisha had never had a single intention of abandoning Shira. It didn’t matter how often she may have tried to push them away in the past; she was still one of them. And they wouldn’t leave each other behind.

It was that selfless spirit that had made Terra fall for her in the first place, after all.

Terra addressed the group. “If Aisha didn’t see what happened, there’s still a chance we can save Shira!”

“We can’t take that risk.”

The pack looked to the entrance upon hearing the voice of their leader.

Shortly after, Arez emerged. Though his stride was firm, he appeared deeply troubled, his jagged appearance exaggerated by a frustrated leer. Sonja followed right behind him, looking extremely dejected as she kept her face to the ground.

“Sonja! Arez! You’re okay!” Tomar said.

Sonja nodded as she glanced up. “Yes,” she said. “Is there anyone else who still hasn’t-”

Her voice cut out as soon as she saw Aisha. Her eyelids raised slightly as she uttered, “Aisha … You made it out …”

“… Yeah …” Aisha responded. “… But Shira’s in trouble! We’ve gotta go back and find her!”

She knew there would be some pushback. But she nonetheless looked to her trusted leader, confident that he would agree they still had a job to do.

Which was why she couldn’t believe it when he solemnly shook his head.

“We will do no such thing.”

His voice was low, but the words it carried left a decent chunk of the pack speechless. Terra and Aisha’s mouths drooped open as they stared at their alpha incredulously. They could barely process the neutral, downright dismissive way he’d spoken, as if he wasn’t even slightly troubled or saddened by the prospect of losing Shira. Sonja’s weary face looked quite surprised as well. Clearly, he hadn’t told her his stance on the matter.

Benji darted forward. “What?! No! We can’t leave her!”

“Sweetie, please.” Terra put a paw on Benji’s head to calm him down.

“I understand the tragedy of leaving her to die,” Arez said, his voice still flat. “But if that cave is as dangerous as we think, then we all must stay out.” He then noticed that two more of his underlings were still not out here yet. “The same goes for Tico and Zoe. If they’re not back either, we have to assume the worst for them. We can’t lose anyone else to … whatever those things are.”

Tomar slumped his shoulders, rubbing his paw anxiously in the gravel.

“But … Shira …” he whispered.

Arez looked sharply at Tomar, who instantly backed down.

True, he was absolutely terrified of setting a single foot in that place after Aisha’s account. If Shira couldn’t make it in there, what chance did he have? In most circumstances, he would have run and never looked back. But … the thought of losing Shira threatened to poison the tan tiger’s quiet heart. Even if she never returned his affections, he’d never be able to sleep at night again if he didn’t take the chance to help her.

“We can wait out here a bit longer to see if they come out. But I insist we all stay out here. We’ve wasted enough energy already.”

“Oh, so saving someone’s life is a waste of energy to you?!” Aisha spat back.

“When one of them barely considers herself part of this pack anyway, and is just another mouth to feed, then yes!”

The air went deadly silent.

Everyone was too stunned by the orange male’s harsh words to say anything further. There was no clear sign that Zoe and Tico were in any danger; they just hadn’t come out yet. But that certainly wasn’t the case with Shira, which forced them all to think their options over …

It seemed so callous to leave one of their pack members behind, no matter who it was. And it was especially jarring to have their own leader insist they do so. Arez could be harsh, but he had never been this cold before. Aisha and Terra were particularly incensed, and they made it obvious through their disgusted leers back at him.

At the same time, however, almost none of them had ever felt close to Shira, and it wasn’t like she’d made much effort in the first place. Some of them hated to admit it, but … was it really worth risking their lives for someone like her? When she probably wouldn’t even be that grateful anyway?

But then, an unexpected voice dared to break the silence and get the ball rolling.

“I think …” Sonja spoke.

Everyone’s attention turned to the grey-white female.

“… I think it’s … worth a shot.”

It seemed like the future mother was losing her bravery the more her packmates looked at her in surprise, for she again hid her face from them. She almost seemed ashamed by what she was suggesting, likely knowing her proposal would jeopardize more lives. But she nonetheless held firm enough to say, “Shira’s … worth saving …”

Aisha beamed with pride, and Terra smiled approvingly. Arez, on the other hand, looked at her in confusion and even slight irritation. Surely she of all people wasn’t going to be optimistic about this, even if Shira had shown her kindness here and there. If anything, Shira being gone benefited her more than anyone else!

“I’ll go too!”

Tomar finally swallowed his fear, came forward, and announced his intentions to help. He still shook, his teeth close to chattering. But he forced a confirming nod, ensuring them all that he wouldn’t get cold feet.

Murmurs of surprise broke out at his sudden boldness. Perhaps his affections for Shira went deeper than they’d all thought. And perhaps the puny little guy, for all his awkwardness, had just as much the heart of a saber as the rest of them.

“Hmm,” someone uttered. “Attaboy, Tomar.”

A few more volunteers joined in.

“Sure, why not?”

“I’ll help!”

“It’s the right thing to do.”

The sentiment seemed to spread amongst the sabers. Not too far … but far enough to make a difference.

Aisha and Benji looked back at Arez. As they saw his genuine surprise at the rising support for their cause, they didn’t even try to hide their smug, victorious grins. Indeed, even he was starting to see that enough of their pack was volunteering for them to maybe have a chance of at least finding Shira.

Even if he chastised the choice, he wasn’t going to stop them from trying.

He glanced over at Sonja, who looked back at him with a shy smile, totally devoid of the same smugness.

The stocky male sighed.

“One hour,” he stated. “After that, we’re leaving. No matter who comes back.”

---

Nearly half an hour had passed for Shira’s captivity.

Her whole body had gone incredibly stiff and frighteningly numb at many points. Every time she moved in her cocoon, the seemingly invincible silk rubbed deeper through her fur, barely needing to stretch to contain the mighty saber. Her hind legs twitched erratically, their long, nimble shape outlined and accentuated as they uselessly shimmied. The strangling mass around her face and mouth was nearly enough to drive her into a frenzy.

“Mmmfh … Mmmm …”

She so badly wanted to scream out in her absolute agony … but of course, those screams would sound as choked-up as she felt.

Not to mention, they would draw attention on her during her escape attempt.

While scanning her entire underground prison, Shira had quickly noticed that, a good few meters beneath her, there was a large crack in the wall, subtly sitting at the base of the ledge above which she’d been stuck. It formed a hole that looked big enough for her, but not her oversized spider captors.

She had then looked at her claws, noticing they were one of the few parts of her not covered in webbing, though just barely as her front toes peeked out from the encasement. She gave the silk itself a few experimental tugs, observing how strong it really was. It wouldn’t be yanked off; there was no doubt about that.

But perhaps it could be cut …

Now, Shira’s striking teal eyes were intensely focused. After flexing and stretching her paws, she’d managed to touch her claws to the web strand right in front of her, the one that continued underneath her body as the main link connecting everything else. Breathing slowly and carefully through her nose, Shira began awkwardly sawing her claws back and forth against the strand. She could confirm that while it was remarkably strong despite its thinness, it was not immune to the sharpness of her precious babies. The silver prisoner tried her best to ignore the enhanced constriction caused by her shifting. She just focused on cutting through the webbing.

And, after five straight minutes, she succeeded. Already, Shira could feel the base of her support weakening. Some light wriggling on her part jostled her a bit more than before.

But the rest of the webs still held her. Which meant it was time for the harder part: cutting the silk that branched off to her left and right.

Shira’s front was facing one of them, which meant it wasn’t too hard to curl herself over and chip away at the fibrous material. It did, however, require continuous effort for her compressed stomach and waist as she fought against the pull of the webbing from her other side. Not to mention making the cocoon itself dig into her even deeper.

“Mmmggghhh …”

But the steely saber resisted. She panted loudly through the gagging muck, groaning through the burning of her muscles. And soon, the strand was snapped, and she felt her base give out just slightly more.

Shira didn’t let herself rest. The spiders’ dinnertime could be any second, and she and her fellow saber captives were no doubt the five-star entrée they were craving!

She tried to reach the next lower web strand on the same side … only for the webs on her other side to pull her back.

“Nmmmnh!”

The gagged female grunted irritably. Her eyes, practically glowing in the illuminated pit, narrowed as they looked over her shoulder at the stubborn strands. Taking a few more heaving gasps of air, she tried to toss herself over onto her other side. But her claws just missed the web before she was yanked back. The whole web bounced roughly, causing Shira to groan and reel her head at the resulting nausea.

Unfortunately, this movement apparently caught the attention of some of her twelve-legged captors above. Upon hearing a few sharp screeches, her eyes darted up to see some of the spiders had halted what they’d been doing, turning their grossly fuzzy heads to stoically stare at the trapped tiger.

Shira froze. She didn’t even raise her head to get a better view, nor to check on the other two tigers whose muffled cries had since subsided. She vowed to not react even if she heard them crawl towards her again. All she did was wait, praying none of them saw the slight damage she’d done to their precious silky structure.

She heard the slight scraping of a spider’s leg against the cave wall.

She heard them clacking their jaws a couple of times.

“… mmmmh …” she whimpered.

But ultimately, she suppressed a sigh of relief when the spiders then moved on.

That’s it … There ya go … Just keep minding your own business …

Shira tried to turn herself back over with greater force than before. This time, she managed to graze the strand of web she’d been aiming for. Just as she started to flip back over, the grey female wrenched herself back again. She tossed her cruelly restrained hind legs to give herself extra momentum, and she summoned all the power she had in her tight, compact muscles to keep herself there.

“Mmmph!”

Her sleek abdomen, waist, and shoulders all worked to their fullest potential, throbbing and pulsating under the squelching, squeezing cocoon. “Mmnnnff. Mmrrrghph. Rrrrmmff …” She tried to keep her grunts of exertion quiet. Her bound forelegs constantly fought to work against their folded constriction, trying to get just a little bit more reach, stretching and pushing the webbing as much as they could! But they were too tightly folded against her firm chest, relentlessly wrapped up like an intricately prepared present.

The web constantly wobbled, as did her sturdy but relatively small form. She paused again, peering up to make sure the spiders weren’t watching her again. Thankfully, they weren’t. They were too busy picking at their other carnivorous captives, both of whom shook and squirmed with rapidly draining energy.

So, the saber-tooth growled lowly through her gag, gave herself another big push, and finally snapped the web!

She opted to let herself flip back over, giving herself a quick but sorely needed rest.

“Hmmmf, hmmmgh, hrrmmph …” she panted.

All of that work, strain, and focus … just to cut a few of the suspending strands.

“Mmrrmmnnh,” she whimpered as she thought about how much longer this would take, and how much this would drain her.

But also how that none of that would stop her.

---

Aisha and Terra exercised great caution through their trek back into this bizarre underground lair.

They, along with roughly half of the pack, had agreed to form the search party that would track down Shira, Tico, and Zoe … if there was anything left of them to track down. Sonja and Benji were among those who’d stayed behind, while Tomar and Arez joined the hopeful rescue mission.

The road for the two mates was thankfully straightforward so far, largely consisting of a single, direct path with only a few branches and turns … none of which they opted to take yet. They both took constant mental notes of where they had been going, ensuring they wouldn’t get lost should they need to turn back. Not that getting lost wouldn’t have been too easy anyway, considering how many visually distinct structures and obstacles they kept coming across.

One of the first of which was a cramped, narrow maze of stalactites, stalagmites, and rocky points of various lengths, sticking out at many inconvenient points. There was an exit about ten meters up, but getting there would require making their way through this jagged mess.

Aisha went ahead first. Her very wiry frame, though the result of undereating, made this task much easier for her. She began slinking her way across like a serpent, curving her middle around the first major edge on her right. She wedged her narrow paws in between the bases of the surprisingly wobbly stalagmites, the rings on her forehead furrowing as she planned each step before making it.

More of that inexplicable purple glow outlined every little crack and crevasse in between the stones. She felt like her feet were constantly millimeters away from making contact with whatever was underneath … and given the heat it was giving off, she hoped that precious little space didn’t close.

When she heard a sharp hiss behind her, she turned back, wincing when she saw her orange mate having a rougher go.

Terra was a naturally bigger saber, which automatically meant she was guaranteed to scrape her fur against the longer points in this space. Making matters worse was the way they poked at her large paws, which were too big to squeeze in between some of the rocks. She wobbled, tipping over, being unpleasantly caught by prodding points.

But most concerning was the fact that her weight was causing the very terrain beneath her to crumble. Though Aisha could feel the instability of the grounded peaks at her feet, she’d thankfully kept them intact. Terra, on the other hand, couldn’t help but put a bit too much pressure on them for her own good.

The pad of her paw stepped squarely onto a sharp, stabbing point.

“Gnnnh!!” The pain was too much for her, causing her foot to slip and slide down the peak.

Which was enough to break through the floor, revealing a pool of purple, acid-like liquid below that subsequently hit her skin and fur.

It proved even hotter than it appeared, and Terra instantly shot forward to rid herself of the pain that cut through her foot like daggers! But in doing so, her feet caused two more stalagmites to give out, forcing her ahead, breaking even more of the floor! It was a constant cycle that led to a chase between the tigers and the collapsing infrastructure!

Aisha darted ahead, and Terra sped right behind her as quickly as possible! As they came across a stretch of verticality, Aisha scrambled up as delicately as possible, making extra sure her mate would have something to climb herself! Terra gritted her teeth, forcing herself to bear the brunt of every jab, poke, and scrape that this unforgiving tunnel sent through her skin, quickly reaching the climbing point herself.

As expected, as soon as she made progress upwards, the sideways rock points she’d used were broken, the chunks falling into what was now a small pool of violet acid. But she didn’t dare look down; her sights were only on Aisha, whose blue and green eyes were wide with worry and hope for her love’s successful ascent!

She sighed with relief as Terra finally made the final push to stable ground. As Terra collapsed over the side, she wound up nose-to-nose with Aisha, who gave the larger female a hearty lick.

After cleaning their paws and shaking out as much of the new aches as they could, the two continued on.

A little while later, they were forced into another balancing act when they entered a much wider, much more spacious cavern, whose only way across was the narrow bridge upon which they both now slowly walked.

Falling down what looked like a fifty-foot drop would have been fatal, due to both the height and the widespread river of more purple acid that flowed across the bottom. Its source was a waterfall of the strange substance that flowed through a slat in one of the sides, which carried shards of crystals and melted chunks of thicker purple sludge. The steam emanating off the waterfall’s peak spoke even further to its high temperature, as did the much warmer, more humid air.

But that wasn’t the most unsettling part. For through the very wide river swam … what they could only discern were incredibly long, girthy, beige, worm-like creatures. Their tails, each adorned with a set of sharp teeth that matched those at their fronts, splashed the liquid all around, whipping incredibly quickly for their size. Some of these worms even swam up the “waterfall,” speeding their way to some other, unseen area that Terra hoped they never saw.

The sabers finally made it across, but it was of little comfort.

“What is this place?” Terra asked.

“I don’t know …” Aisha could only respond.

As they both forged ahead, she opted to keep herself pressed against Terra’s side. This whole space was like some missing pocket from a world deep beneath the planet, dredged up to their surface, bringing with it all foreign substances that had any number of effects on its inhabitants … including those who’d possibly snatched up their packmate.

“Shira won’t last long in here if we don’t find her soon,” Aisha said, snapping Terra away from her own spine-tingling thoughts.

Terra’s face grew sour at the thought of Shira, or anyone else, dying in here. But she still tried to remain positive. “If anyone could make it, it’s Shira,” she said. “She’s tougher than just about any saber I’ve ever met.”

“Even me?” Aisha asked, giving her love a fake pout that got a chuckle out of Terra.

Kidding aside, Aisha nonetheless concurred. “But yeah … you’re right. She’d never let anything mess with her.”

It was a trait she both admired and found off-putting about the silver saber-tooth. Aisha had always seen value in Shira, but her own bubbly energy had clashed with Shira’s more cynical outlook a few too many times. So much so that they almost became irreversible rivals when Shira scolded Aisha for adopting Benji and having him join their already struggling pack.

But both Aisha and Terra’s thoughts on her grew far less negative when she formed an unexpected bond with Benji. His impressionable little mind had been drawn to the tough, badass loner of the pack from the start. And somehow, over time, he turned out to be the one pack member of whom Shira seemed genuinely fond.

“I just wish she’d open up to us more,” Aisha lamented. “I feel like she’d be such a good friend if she just tried!”

Once again, the slight feline found herself pondering what their future was with Shira, or what future Shira even wanted. Maybe this whole experience would bring her closer to at least her and Terra? Or maybe she’d be so determined to reestablish her self-reliant status that she’d distance herself from them even more.

Terra nudged Aisha’s head with her own. “I think she’s getting there. You saw her with Sonja earlier. She’s got a soft side in her somewhere. She just needs to not force it down all the time.”

Aisha nodded with a smile.

With that, the two mates continued their search. Neither of them knew exactly what kinds of threats lurked around any possible corner. Let alone which ones had ambushed Aisha and Shira. But they knew they had to stay hopeful in order to survive in this unsettling place.

Little did they know their biggest threat was following them from afar.

Watching their every move. Keeping out of sight as it slunk through the darkness.

Waiting for the right time to strike.

---

Thirty more minutes went by for Shira.

Thirty minutes of strenuous, frustrating efforts to cut herself down from this ungodly unyielding spiderweb.

Thankfully, her work in cutting the first line of web strands now gave her the freedom to curl her upper half a bit more in both directions, just enough to cut through the next two lower horizontal strands. Still, it had been an excruciating process for the wrapped-up female. Her progress was littered with frequent starting and stopping as she tried to keep the spiders, who were always lurking around, unaware of her efforts. The closer she got to dropping, the more her body screamed under the mummifying cocoon, which itself hadn’t weakened at all no matter how much it was stretched by her sturdy, flexible muscles.

But throughout every step, Shira forced herself to not dwell on that. She tossed herself over to start on the next web tier. Doing so required much less force on her part now that half of the webs cradling her were gone, with the rest only clinging to her lithe lower half and rear legs.

However, maybe she had too much room now. As her other side landed flat on the web’s surface, the touching web ended up sticking to her cocoon. As it “fought” with the other webs for the right to hold the powerful feline, Shira took advantage of this and rapidly sawed through one of the strands.

“Mmmmph. Hmmmph.”

More little mumbles seeped out from the web gag. Her chest and upper forelegs had never hurt so much in her entire life, having put so much work into vigorously pumping and thrusting her claws up and down. Additionally, now that she was being so loosely held in place, her stomach started dropping as her head and shoulders found themselves completely over open air. She actually had to put new effort into keeping herself flat, her slim shoulders straining and pushing against the cocoon to hold the rest of her still.

“Mmmmmmmmmhhh …”

But she snapped the strand at last.

Her left side was now only attached to one line of the web, which held her feet.

Which meant her body finally gave way.

Thinking quickly, Shira flipped herself over, using her claws for a “swinging” arc that cleanly cut through the third strand on her right side!

After that, the saber-tooth fell completely through.

“Grrrmmph!”

She was now dangling upside-down, only suspended by her bound feet. Through the sudden vertigo, she looked down to see herself right above the tip of the ledge that had stuck out from the cave’s side. The only thing that would stop her from falling into the possibly endless pit.

She looked back up at the webs above her. They were clearly straining, pulled to their limits to keep a grip on her. At this point, Shira believed – or she hoped – she wouldn’t even need her claws at this point! A series of powerful thrusts should be all it took to dislodge herself!

But in that same view, she looked past the web and saw two spiders suddenly turn their heads at the sight of the sudden movement.

They roared when they saw her current state and instantly rushed over to trap her again! Or probably make the cocoon even thicker! Or just devour her outright!

“Mmrrrrmmmhh!!”

Shira thrashed and twisted her long body! Her waist flexibly contorted itself back and forth, her firm, lanky rear legs thrusting, wriggling, shimmying, kicking against their gooey prison! Yet the web strands barely thinned out as the spiders rushed closer, already halfway to her position!

“NNMMMHHH!!!” Shira shouted, performing rapid sit-ups to try and use her weight to snap herself loose!

Her blood rushed to her gagged-up head. The space around her was spinning, her loud breaths a sign of her exponentially rising dizziness as she constantly swung and twisted with painfully minimal control! Her movement was shaken further by the vibrations of cave walls as the duo, joined by a growing horde, stormed closer!

She heard the angry clacking of the spiders’ jaws, their roars loud and frequent, their front three legs extended as their retractable “fingers” snapped together!

They were nearly there! She wouldn’t be able to free herself through sheer force fast enough!

In a last-second act of pure desperation, the saber swung herself up once. Then twice. Then, with her built-up momentum, she summoned all her athletic prowess to do a twisting upward lunge that let her claws slice through one of the strands at her feet. “Mmmh!”

As she fell back, the one remaining strand finally snapped.

Shira’s heart nearly skipped a beat for the one second in which she was in freefall. Her lower half slammed into the ledge, with her upper body sticking out into the open. She whimpered as she felt herself slowly sliding off, but the strong saber quickly used her bound thighs and knees to wrestle herself away and onto solid enough ground.

The spiders’ subsequent screams were like lethal lightning strikes to her eardrums! Their red eyes began glowing with hatred, their massive frills slapping ragefully into their bodies. As they stormed and ripped through their own webs to get to her, Shira gasped and rolled into the life-saving hole.

The mere two seconds it took to get inside felt like an eternity. The spiders were a meter away, and their spindly legs swiftly reached out for her. She felt them snag on her cocoon for half a second, but she ultimately managed to keep rolling, deeper into the tiny corridor.

She didn’t dare stop as the spiders stuck their many legs inside. They all did so at once, screeching and scrambling over each other, slamming their flopping, chitin limbs all about, trying to poke their hissing jaws through.

Shira never looked back at them. The tunnel was illuminated by a few glowing crystals embedded into the tunnel walls, allowing her to see as she kept rolling, the panting through her gag slowly drowning out the feral screams of the blood-hungry spiders that grew fainter and fainter …

---

“Well, this is great,” Aisha muttered sarcastically.

She and Terra stared in disappointment at the dead end before them.

A wall coated in magenta ice blocked off anything that may have been beyond it. It wasn’t very thick, but it clearly couldn’t be shattered or melted. Encased within were more of the same long, girthy worms from earlier, except now the sabers could get a closer look.

It wasn’t a pretty image: the razor-sharp teeth these creatures sported protruded from faces that only featured one large, black orb for an eye. In addition to the smaller sets of teeth on the tips of their “tails,” there was also a large number of tiny holes all along their sides.

Getting the surreal feeling these worms were somehow still watching them, Terra shuddered and looked down. Beneath them was a pit of solid ground with small patches of crystals and ooze. Nothing else. Nowhere for them to go.

Aisha turned to Terra. “What now?”

Terra sighed. She was now even more grateful that they’d been so careful to keep track of where they’d been … but that still didn’t give them any idea of where they should go next.

She shook her head and responded, “I guess we just turn around and-”

The two females suddenly felt a strong, swift force against their backs.

They were sent cleanly over the edge, into the pit. Terra shouted as she made impact, her somewhat bulky frame pained by the hard floor.

“Wha-!!?” Aisha scrambled to her feet and looked back up at where they’d just been standing …

… Only to see nothing.

It was just empty space, like whatever had just attacked had hit them and instantly run off …

But that wasn’t even the most worrying part.

As their eyes kept trailing upward, they noticed the bottom of … some bizarre, curved shape peeking out from the darkness. It was tan in color, with a crease going across its middle … and it was pulsating. Mostly lightly at first, but the second they landed, it began expanding and contracting at an increasing rate. The ensuing crinkling and crackling noises grew greater, louder … more urgent …

The two mates looked at each other, backing up slowly …

… And then the sac opened up at the seam.

And bursting out of it came five of those mutated worms, flying straight at the sabers with whistling cries that overpowered their own screams!

The quintet of worms flew right at Aisha and Terra, and Terra braced herself for a face full of those freakishly long teeth against her sturdy frame! But Aisha bravely threw herself in front of her mate, forced to endure the teeth scraping nastily against her middle!

“Aaagh!!” she screamed!

But it got so much worse for her as soon as two of those worms wrapped their wiggly lengths around her waist and neck, gripping and choking her!

“Noo-gachk!”

The small saber stumbled and slipped, her vision going blurry for a second as the serpentine bodies whipped their way around her head, even squeezing her muzzle shut! “Nmmemnph- gemmk!!”

“AISHA!!” Terra let out a thunderous roar, one uncommon for the kindhearted female!

But the remaining three worms had already shoved their mouths into Terra’s side, knocking the strong saber over! They bit and gnashed her all around, with Terra trying to return the favor and dig her own teeth into the flesh of these monsters! She managed to bite down into one as it wrapped itself around her chest, but it only constricted her even more harshly in response!

“Nrrrmn … HMMP MM!!” Aisha squealed through her closed muzzle as her forelegs were also wrapped together by the tail-end of a worm, who then clasped its vicious back teeth atop her head! They cut through the fur, into her skin, yanking her forelegs up so she’d stumble trying to swat it away!

She then heard a series of small, wet cracking sounds.

From the worms’ many tiny holes on their sides came a large bundle of thin, dark pink tendrils, all of which writhed about chaotically before finding their focus. Several of them shot up to the hive from which these worms had come, latched on … and started retracting, lifting the worms and Aisha up off the ground!

“HMMPH!??”

At the same time, the other tendrils swiftly coiled themselves around their skinny prey! Aisha kicked out her dangling legs in frantic circles, swinging and twisting herself to try and get down, but she was helpless to stop the little tentacles from grabbing her hind legs and squeezing them together!

“LET HER GO!!!”

Terra slammed herself against the nearest rock surface, earning a high-pitched cry out of the grappling cretins coiled around her! Two of the worms flung her up and threw her back down, preparing to then use their own tentacles to string her up as well. But just as a set of front teeth was about to close itself around her fighting jaws, Terra got her teeth tightly around its “throat.” The livid, powerful feline then wrapped a single, plus-sized paw around the neck and squeezed with all her might!

The beast thrashed its head to escape, summoning a flurry of tentacles that whipped around her neck and eyes, while its partners finally latched onto their nest to lift her up, tightening their own stranglehold on her. Terra felt her feet leave the floor, but she persisted, digging her claws through flesh, draining her choking attacker of its green blood.

And, ultimately, its life.

Terra then swung her claws up to slash the suspending tendrils apart. The severed coils slapped the floor with one last burst of dying energy, while the others tightened in retaliation, with one of the worms’ tail mouths sharply biting into her back! But that didn’t stop her from bashing them against the wall again, after which she got one loose enough to toss it off and away from her.

Aisha swiped her bound claws, fighting to reach just one of the cylindrical bodies grasping her like an anaconda! But one of their tails slashed its sharp teeth across what little was exposed of her strangled face!

“MMMPH!!!” The sudden, searing sting caused her to flip her flailing form all around, prompting new tentacles to sprout from existing ones and coil around her gut and hips.

By that point, Aisha’s whole body was covered in worm lengths and pink tentacles! She was held there, swinging violently, as a set of tendrils wrapped themselves over her eyes, cutting off the sight of her mate battling nonstop to save them both!

“TRRMMH!!!”

She was fighting so hard, spurred on by the new inability to even see what was happening! She writhed and kicked as four sets of teeth repeatedly prodded and bit into various parts of her covered form. New layers of coils slinked around her, crushing her slowly, and the worms themselves …

… Something was happening across their bodies.

Aisha felt a series of flaps brush and open along her fur.

She then felt … some kind of suction … latching onto her skin … loudly slurping like children digging into a tasty dessert …

… Slowly draining her …

… “MMMMMMMMMPHGPHGPHGPH!!!!!”

“NO!!!” Terra screamed!

The worm she’d just tossed away rushed back to her, but she skillfully caught it between her jaws. It tried to whip its teeth at her face, but Terra stomped down on it with a hind paw, clenching its skin with her back claws. Terra then gave a swift yank of her neck, which was enough to sever the beast.

But she couldn’t help her mate, for her one remaining opponent went for broke and hugged its whole body around her frame! Its larger set of front teeth clenched painfully hard into her throat, cutting off all her air, while its lower half wrapped around her knees and flung her clean off her feet!

Another worm broke out from its hive and instantly shot a set of tentacles at her legs, the mad scramble of tendrils tangling her up and tripping her again!

Terra shoved her hind legs into the ground to get some footing back, but the new worm hugged her thighs and latched both of its jaws around her feet. They were yanked forward, while more of its tentacles made a wide loop around all four of her paws, lashing them together.

It finished its work by using its upper half to securely squeeze her throat and lips, letting its tentacles concealing the rest of her whole head to truly cut off all her senses from the world … and from Aisha.

“Nnnnn … mmmfhmmm!!”

Terra clawed at the floor as she felt herself being lifted.

Aisha …… no ……

“Rmmmph …” Aisha could feel herself fading … the wet, feeding suction of her constrictors caused her head to go light … she couldn’t breathe …

… she felt her eyes start to roll to the back of her skull …

But then, a new voice entered in the form of a bellowing battle cry.

Suddenly, across the pit, in swooped Arez. He grasped at the tentacles suspending Aisha with his teeth. As he fell, so too did the coils that were ripped apart, finally releasing Aisha from their suspension.

Immediately after, he leapt up at Terra’s encasement and punctured the worm around her head with his one sharp tusk.

“Hrrrph!!?” Aisha yelled, not knowing what had just saved her.

Arez pulled the worm’s “head” off Terra, slamming it to the floor and giving it a lethal bite. Terra gasped as its tentacles went slack around her, but she wasted no time in wrapping her jaws around the worm binding her legs. It brought its second set of teeth to the back of her neck in response, but Terra persisted, grunting and hissing through the puncturing until her foe couldn’t take it anymore.

After shaking the now-dead worm off her feet, Terra joined Arez in teaming up on the two worms still hugging tightly onto Aisha, who squirmed and rolled around to get them off!

“Mmmh!! Mmmhmmmff!!”

Arez bit one of the beasts repeatedly, staining his tusks and mouth with green. But these hungry predators proved stubborn, with one of them forming a spear with its back teeth and repeatedly jabbing the male in the gut as it tightened itself and its tentacles around the female!

“Hnnnnnnnnnn …” came Aisha’s prolonged groan at the enhanced constriction.

Arez fought to maintain his grip, but his legs started trembling and buckling as the ensuing injuries started to pile up!

But Terra scrambled over and, with the panicked rapidness of a woman fighting for the love of her life, plowed her tusks into the leathery skin of the snakes.

Over and over.

No mercy. Not pausing for even a fragment of a second.

The worms’ rear teeth let out much tinier, but just as intense, roars at Terra. But Terra simply roared back. And with one last meaty bite, she twisted her jaws and snapped one of their bodies in two.

Arez held his own foe to the floor, pinning it down with his paws. With the wriggling, desperate body still firmly in his mouth, he yanked it up and finished it off with a swift twist of his neck, lethally mangling the last of these monstrosities.

The worm collapsed dead on the floor, its coils finally loosening around Aisha’s neck.

All three sabers panted deeply, with Aisha’s being muffled and more frantic as she consumed the precious air that had been allowed back into her lungs. She sloppily rolled back into a lying position, wriggling her forelegs out of the worms’ foul coils to push herself up.

As the tentacles slipped off her face, the young saber’s eyes were revealed to the world again. Never did she think she’d be happy to see the visual dreariness of this cave again, yet here she was, blinking to welcome the light back into her pupils.

And gracing Terra with the sight of blue and green orbs that had entranced her countless times.

“Aisha!”

She ran to her mate and brought a foreleg around her back lovingly. Aisha moaned with relief, nestling her face into Terra’s throat. The larger saber didn’t dare let the embrace end so soon, but she did slowly and delicately unwind the lifeless worm from her frame entirely, coil by coil, giving many a gentle lick to her beautifully marked forehead. Aisha’s heart was still racing in the wake of such treacherous peril, but it was already settling within the protective hold of her forever love.

“Thank you …” she whispered tearfully as the creature was finally off.

She turned to Arez, who was nudging each worm to make sure they were all truly dead, flicking the newly revealed, rubbery flaps and slats all along their lengths.

“Thank goodness you were here too,” Aisha acknowledged him for the first time.

Arez grunted with a curt nod, totally devoid of any heroic fanfare. “I heard the fight and ran as fast as I could. A few of the others said they’ve been seeing freaks like these and high-tailed it out of here.”

Aisha shook her neck and legs, wincing at the aches that flared up and would likely remain for a long while after this. Terra simply looked back and forth between herself and the dead worms. These things weren’t the most durable creatures in the world, but they’d just proven themselves extremely dangerous. Just a small group like this one had beaten two adult tigers before Arez had arrived … she hated to think how a solo saber would have fared in the same situation …

… Such as …

“Aisha …” Terra asked, dreading the words coming out of her mouth. “… When you lost Shira … did the roars you heard sound like … these?”

Aisha swallowed deeply as she replied, “N-No … they sounded … even bigger …”

Through the horrors they’d just endured, she had completely forgotten about Shira! She still had no clue what had gotten her! Was it worms like these except even more powerful? An entirely different monster altogether?

Whatever it was, there was no doubt in Terra’s mind that Shira would have been lucky to escape anything even comparable to this. Even if she had, the fact that there was still no sign of her, nor the two other packmates they’d yet to find, meant that they were unable to make it out on their own.

They could be wounded, weakened … which would make them even easier kills for this cave’s gauntlet of alien predators.

Terra still tried to hold on to hope … but she was starting to think the worst had happened …

Suddenly, something else loudly squelched out from the large sac looming over them. It fell along with the thick globs of green sludge that had filled up the nest, sharply hitting the ledge before rolling down into the pit.

All three rattled sabers instantly stood back and crouched low, steeling themselves, ready to fight yet another monster.

Only to realize that it wasn’t a monster.

It was the small, motionless form of a saber. Its tan fur was visible underneath the goop coating.

The other sabers cautiously padded towards it …

… And as soon as they got close enough to identify it, their blood ran cold.

“Tomar!!” Terra bellowed!

The timid male had been with another small group of tigers for their missions. Despite his bravery, everyone knew he would need some form of protection joining him. But now, here he was, completely on his own … unmoving …

Arez lowered himself and wiped away the gross, viscous fluid off his packmate. Long, jagged scars and deeply embedded lines of marks were thusly revealed across his body, causing Aisha to moan in abhorrent disgust.

No … Tomar …

Arez was shaken up inside, but he didn’t let it show. He and Terra checked him over, lifting his head to see that his lemon-yellow eyes … were open.

Yet he still didn’t move.

Terra couldn’t see him breathing at all. When she felt his face, it was cold, devoid of any rushing blood. When she nudged his gunked-up body, it was completely stiff, with not even a faint twitch signifying life.

Which meant …

Arez softly uttered what they all realized. His voice was, by far, the most pained the two females had ever heard it sound.

“He’s dead.”

Aisha gasped with a quiet shriek and a paw firmly over her mouth. Terra was too petrified to even move. She only barely registered a trembling Aisha crying into her shoulder. Her foreleg felt like it weighed a thousand pounds as she hugged her back, the two of them sniffling as a frigid cold worse than anything the Ice Age could offer washed over their shaking forms.

Tomar was timid and among the physically weakest of their pack. But for all their teasing, he was a joy to have around. And he’d proven himself to nonetheless be strong at heart, sticking his neck out whenever he was truly needed. To see him rewarded like this … to know that he was destined to die as nothing more than a meal his killers never got to eat …

It shattered the females’ hearts and shook their once-sturdy resolves to new, critical lows.

But Arez responded a bit differently.

He growled. He paced in place, refusing to look at either of them.

Before finally turning to them with furious red eyes.

“I told you nothing would come from this search!”

Terra was taken aback by the sudden outburst. “Arez, please-”

But he wouldn’t be cut off. His snarling leer was now directed at Aisha, who’d been the most vocal in wanting to go on this crusade. “We lost Shira well before we went back in here! But your foolish naivete couldn’t just accept it!”

Aisha kept her head down to hide her continuing tears of shame, her ears practically buried against her skull. She felt so pitiful for being scolded so sharply, but she also couldn’t fight back the guilt in her soul. She had no regrets in trying to save Shira … but she knew that doing so was what had led to Tomar’s death.

“And now,” Arez continued, “We’re missing even more pack members! They’re probably all dead by now!!”

“Don’t yell at her!!” Terra finally snapped, baring her teeth at her so-called leader who dared try to belittle her mate! “We all decided to do our parts!”

“And look what happened!!” Arez shouted. “Another one of our own is dead!!”

Aisha finally found her bravery thanks to Terra’s defense. “Well, according to you, that just means one less mouth to feed, doesn’t it!”

Arez snarled. His hackles were fully raised, and he looked like he was about to fight back even more aggressively.

But that expression stayed frozen in place at her last rebuttal.

He panted in anger. Seething, raw anger from the pit of his gut. Anger that begged to burst and spew right in the faces of these persistent idealists. Anger from which they both were ready to defend themselves and each other, pack rankings be damned.

But he didn’t let it happen.

Instead, that anger was melting like a glacier in the sun, without him even realizing it. For he couldn’t deny that, by the standards he himself had established, he shouldn’t even care about this tragedy. He should just be sucking it up and moving on.

… At least, that’s how it was supposed to go.

He looked back at Tomar’s body.

The orange pack leader had watched several sabers perish from starvation alone in the past several weeks. Friends of his, mutuals, and those to whom he’d been largely indifferent. And through it all, he thought he had successfully managed to grow numb to death in general. He thought he’d made himself grow numb, like he wanted … no, needed.

But seeing the result of this younger male’s noble efforts and clear torture was enough to rattle the steely, protective core Arez had built for himself.

He turned back to the females, who had now cleanly wiped their tears and were looking back at him with hearty disapproval.

“I … I would give anything to bring back everyone we’ve lost. I mean that,” he quietly heaved. “But I can’t. And when you live with that day after day after day, knowing that the responsibility lies with you … you realize the only way to get through it is with a hardened heart.”

Arez closed his eyes with a deep sigh, trying to dam up the flood of emotions threatening to spill out.

But Aisha and Terra could still see him struggling within, and their angered stances began to subside.

It was unlike anything they’d ever seen from the no-nonsense, cynical saber. And it was a clear sign of how much they had all been getting beaten down. Not just by today’s events, but by the slow demise of everything they held dear. Even those they thought were above such sadness.

Arez turned away, walking towards the bottom of the ledge, ready to jump up.

“I believe in this pack,” he first said. “That’s why I need to protect what’s left of it.”